Big Law Explores the PE Route

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Good Morning,

OpenAI is preparing a new device launch, ByteDance's founder told staff to avoid AI distillation, Jamie Dimon is leading a cross-industry effort to tackle AI risks, market bulls are plowing into S&P 500 calls, and 'Big Law' firms are exploring selling stakes to PE.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks slipped yesterday on Iran deal doubts

  • Dow snapped a five-day win streak

• Europe's Stoxx 600 closed at a new ATH

• Dollar posted its best day in two weeks

• Korean won rose to the highest since October

Earnings

• SoftBank reported a smaller-than-expected decline in net income, lifted by a big boost from its stake in Intel (BBG)

• Airbnb posted a second-straight beat-and-raise on robust travel demand, particularly in US and Europe (BBG)

• DraftKings missed Q2 earnings and revenue estimates on customer-friendly sport outcomes and increased spending on promotions and marketing (WSJ)

• Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

• Kevin Warsh is ready to support a rate hike if inflation remains high. But markets aren't fully convinced

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Headline Roundup

• Warsh will stick with lean Fed messaging despite market backlash (FT)

• US productivity rose faster than expected in Q2 (RT)

• FOMO-driven buying of S&P calls fuels 'one-way flow' of orders (BBG)

• EM gets a hard lesson in tech hype (RT)

• Day traders hammered by stock market slump double down in Taiwan (BBG)

• 'Big Law' firms are exploring selling stakes to PE (FT)

• Private credit funds avert worst fears and bounce back from lows (BBG)

• Hackers targeted Blackstone as focus shifts to PE and law (RT)

• Jamie Dimon is leading a new cross-industry effort to tackle AI risks (RT)

• DOJ investigated JPMorgan for mishandling fraud cases (WSJ)

• SpaceX shares were steady after a $100B lockup expired (BBG)

• Bank of America's co-head of IB and two others will depart (RT)

• Paramount paused NFL media rights talks amid Warner deal (BBG)

• ByteDance founder told staff to avoid AI distillation (RT)

• OpenAI is seeking to dismiss of Apple's trade secrets lawsuit (RT)

• OpenAI's new device will be hockey puck-sized and cost $300 (BBG)

• Meta AI model hacked another company during testing (RT)

• Nikita Bier stepped down as X's head of product (TC)

• US restaurant chains hit by food borne illness outbreaks (RT)

• Mexico deployed hundreds of troops to secure avocado heartlands (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

• Musk's SpaceX and Musk's Tesla will invest $17B to build Musk's Terafab, an advanced AI semiconductor complex in Texas

• Fintech Stripe is in exclusive talks to acquire LLM API startup OpenRouter in a $10B cash-and-stock deal

• Activist hedge fund TOMS is raising pressure on $9B-listed asset manager Voya Financial to sell itself

• Apollo agreed to buy UK budget airline EasyJet for $7.7B cash after rival bidder Castlelake pulled out of talks

• Media analytics firm Nielsen will DoubleVerify for $2.15B cash at a 15% premium

• $2B-listed digital ‌banking software provider Alkami Technology launched a sale amid pressure from activist ​Jana Partners

• O&G giant ConocoPhillips completed a $1.7B divestiture of ​noncore Lower 48 assets

• Google is in talks to acqui-hire AI coding startup Mechanize for $1.5B; the startup raised a seed round just four months ago

• KKR agreed to acquire Sweden-based Medicover's Indian hospital operations at a $1.4B valuation, including debt

• Japanese beverage maker Kirin will acquire Canadian vitamins and supplements maker Jamieson Wellness for $1.4B cash at a 27% premium

• Swiss PE firm Partners Group agreed to buy a majority stake in AVK Power Solutions, a UK-based power solutions supplier for data centers, starting with an initial $1B investment

• LS Power will acquire a Texas gas plant from Constellation Energy for $860M

• Eye drugmaker Tarsus Pharmaceuticals will acquire Alkeus Pharmaceuticals in an $800M ‌cash-and-stock deal

VC

• Defense manufacturing startup Hadrian raised a $1.4B Series D at a $7.9B valuation anchored by JPMorgan's Strategic Investment Group

• Volta Infra Holdings, a UK Nvidia-backed AI infrastructure company, raised a $300M round at a $2.4B post-money valuation led by a16z and Altimeter

• Moove, a vehicle-financing and ride-hailing fleet operator, raised a $250M Series C at a $2.1B valuation led by Mubadala

• Acrab, an agentic AI compute infrastructure company, raised a $130M Series B with continued support from Vertex Ventures SEA & India

• Discovery Loop, an AI startup focused on automating scientific discovery, raised a $100M seed round co-led by Radical Ventures and Khosla Ventures

• Faye, an AI-powered travel protection platform, raised a $50M Series C led by Madrona

• WindBorne Systems, a weather intelligence company building an atmospheric sensing network and AI forecasting models, raised a $37M Series B co-led by Khosla Ventures and Galvanize

• Sapiom, the platform builders use to ship, run, and scale AI agents, raised a $35M Series A led by Dragonfly

• InRisk Labs, a technology-led risk and reinsurance platform, raised a $27M Series A co-led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Northpoint Capital

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• $90B-listed mining giant Glencore will launch a secondary listing in Australia

• UK-based AI cloud firm Nscale is planning a US IPO for September; the startup was last valued at $15B

• United Wholesale Mortgage tanked 50% after announcing a $2.05B equity investment by Oaktree and UWM-linked family office SFS Group Capita

• Chinese robot maker Unitree Technology is seeking to raise $900M in a China IPO

• a16z-biotech Braveheart Bio surged 66% in its trading debut after raising $382M for a $2.1B market cap in an upsized IPO

Debt

• Alphabet is set to raise $25B from a bond sale that saw $115B in demand

• Jane Street is in talks to shift its $11B in debt to private investors including PIMCO

• Boeing and Lockheed Martin's rocket JV United Launch Alliance is seeking to raise $500M in a private placement of bonds

Funds / Secondaries

• UK PE firm Bridgepoint raised $5.9B for its latest Europe private credit fund

• Swiss VC secondaries specialist G Squared raised $2.3B for its seventh flagship fund

• Ares was forced to scale back a $1.2B European private credit CV after investors balked at loan valuations

• Growth investor Highland Europe raised $1.3B for its sixth fund

• PE firm GTCR raised $1.25B for its first ever Capital Solutions Fund

• Willow Tree Credit Partners closed a $730M private credit CV led by HarbourVest Partners

• A BlackRock BDC is offloading $525M of debt holdings through a deal with secondary specialist Pantheon

• OCIO TIFF Investment Management raised $300M for its fifth PE fund

• Blue Earth Capital raised $200M for its impact secondaries fund

• Blackstone's listed private credit BDC Secured Lending Fund cut NAV by the most in six years in Q2

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• Crypto trader Wintermute steps onto regulated Wall Street with broker license

• Scammers pose as watchdogs to exploit EU crypto rule changes

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

Exec's Picks

• NinjaTrader is offering CME single stock futures on Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Amazon, and more. Into derivatives but not a pro? You can learn to trade them risk-free on the NinjaTrader SIM platform.*

• Also, why are so many CEOs getting a chief of staff.

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Financial Services Recruiting

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We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.